NASCAR has been fidgeting with stage breaks on road courses with no end. In 2023, it was announced that there would be no breaks on road course races. However, the breaks were brought back again and as things stand, teams go to COTA for the 6th race of 2024 with stage breaks on. And one of NASCAR’s most prolific road course racers, Michael McDowell, isn’t pleased with it.
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He spoke to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio ahead of Sunday’s race and reasoned his displeasure. He said that he was selfish in not wanting stage breaks because he isn’t a fan of getting interrupted when running up front and leading laps. “But we will adapt and we will overcome,” he said. “I mean, it is the same for everybody. We don’t love it because, for us, we end up giving up a tremendous amount of stage points so that we can try to win the race.”
“We will be pitting before the stage just like all the other guys up front. That’s not fun when you know you’re leaving 20 points on the table that you can use when it’s crunch time.” Driving the #34 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Front Row Motorsports, McDowell has been one of the best road course racers. He won on the Indy Road Course last year and holds an average finish rate of 10.7 in COTA.
“The stage breaks I’m not a fan of.”@Mc_Driver shares his thoughts on stage break cautions returning to road courses in 2024, starting with @COTA this weekend.
Full Interview ▶️ https://t.co/WGRTG5gVtL pic.twitter.com/86PFZRmvCu
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) March 22, 2024
He continued about the upcoming race, “COTA is a great race track and proper road course. Our speed at road courses has been great. This is one that we have circled. With the amount of speed that we have had everywhere else, we are anticipating to have the same amount of speed when we get to Austin.”
McDowell is confident of winning Sunday’s race despite disappointment over stage breaks
Though he isn’t fond of having to race with stage breaks, McDowell doesn’t consider it a bump big enough to stop him from winning. He said, “Really looking forward to this weekend, COTA is a proper road course. The racing is fun and with moving the restart zone back, that will certainly cut back on the Turn 1 chaos.”
“I’m looking forward to getting back there with a lot of the things that we learned last season for making our road course program better. We should have a shot at winning the race and hopefully, we can.” McDowell will be starting the race 27th on the grid.
